Religiousness and Post-Release Community Adjustment in the United States, 1990-1998

This study assessed the effects of male inmate religiosity on post-release community adjustment and investigated the circumstances under which these effects were most likely to take place. The researcher carried out this study by adding Federal Bureau of Investigation criminal history information to an existing database (Clear et al.) that studied the relationship between an inmate's religiousness and his adjustment to the correctional setting. Four types of information were used in this study. The first three types were obtained by the original research team and included an inmate values and religiousness instrument, a pre-release questionnaire, and a three-month post-release follow-up phone survey. The fourth type of information, official criminal history reports, was later added to the original dataset by the principal investigator for this study. The prisoner values survey collected information on what the respondent would do if a friend sold drugs from the cell or if inmates of his race attacked others. Respondents were also asked if they thought God was revealed in the scriptures, if they shared their faith with others, and if they took active part in religious services. Information collected from the pre-release questionnaire included whether the respondent attended group therapy, religious groups with whom he would live, types of treatment programs he would participate in after prison, employment plans, how often he would go to church, whether he would be angry more in prison or in the free world, and whether he would be more afraid of being attacked in prison or in the free world. Each inmate also described his criminal history and indicated whether he thought he was able to do things as well as most others, whether he was satisfied with himself on the whole or felt that he was a failure, whether religion was talked about in the home, how often he attended religious services, whether he had friends who were religious while growing up, whether he had friends who were religious while in prison, and how often he participated in religious inmate counseling, religious services, in-prison religious seminars, and community service projects. The three-month post-release follow-up phone survey collected information on whether the respondent was involved with a church group, if the respondent was working for pay, if the respondent and his household received public assistance, if he attended religious services since his release, with whom the respondent was living, and types of treatment programs attended. Official post-release criminal records include information on the offenses the respondent was arrested and incarcerated for, prior arrests and incarcerations, rearrests, outcomes of offenses of rearrests, follow-up period to first rearrest, prison adjustment indicator, self-esteem indicator, time served, and measurements of the respondent's level of religious belief and personal identity. Demographic variables include respondent's faith, race, marital status, education, age at first arrest and incarceration, and age at incarceration for rearrest.

                                            [
  "011:21"
]
                                        

                                            {
  "fn": "Open Data Office of Justice Programs (USDOJ)",
  "@type": "vcard:Contact",
  "hasEmail": "mailto:opendata@usdoj.gov"
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                                            false
                                        

                                            [
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Religiousness and Post-Release Community Adjustment in the United States, 1990-1998  ",
    "accessURL": "https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03022.v1"
  }
]
                                        

                                            "2966"
                                        

                                            [
  "arrest records",
  "church attendance",
  "church groups",
  "correctional facilities",
  "criminal histories",
  "male inmates",
  "parole",
  "postrelease programs",
  "prison adjustment",
  "psychological wellbeing",
  "religious behavior",
  "social reintegration"
]
                                        

                                            [
  "eng"
]
                                        

                                            [
  "011:060"
]
                                        

                                            {
  "name": "National Institute of Justice",
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    "name": "Office of Justice Programs",
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    "parentOrganization": {
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      "name": "Department of Justice",
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